The ABC reports that Gather is looking to invest $21 million over the next three years in AKP, which was established in 1995.

"It's a huge project, for me personally vindication that the project I started 17 years ago and quickly realising that it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry to now have the second-largest seaweed company in China come and invest in our company," director Bevan Mills told the ABC.

Mills said that seaweed was a $2 billion industry in Asia Pacific, and Australia would become a major force.

The local mayor, Wattle Range Council’s Peter Gandolfini, said that the news was good for the community, and would create 200 local jobs.

"I mentioned to someone earlier that I was attending a jobs announcement - they then said to me, 'What jobs are going?'” he told the ABC.

“I had to explain to them, 'No, no - this is about jobs that are being created.'”

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